Chas Alamo

'11 MA (Econ)/ '11 MPA

United States Peace Corps member

Chas Alamo lives in Acobamba, Junín, Perú, where he serves as a
United States Peace Corps member. Alamo joined the Peace Corps to be a community economic development volunteer in the high Peruvian
Andes. He received his bachelor’s degree in Political Science, cum
laude, from the University of California Riverside in 2007. He later
went on to receive a dual master’s degree in Economics and Public
Administration from Maxwell in 2011.

Alamo currently
teaches a youth financial education course at two local high-schools,
which include workshops on long-term planning, making smart financial
investments, choosing a career path, professionalism, and interviewing
skills. He has also worked to help start community banks that provide
access to credit and savings for communities without access to
traditional financial institutions.

Prior to his work at Peace
Corps, Alamo served as a senior fiscal and policy analyst with the
California Legislative Analyst's Office, which provides nonpartisan
policy and budgetary advice to the state legislature. Alamo was
primarily responsible for revenue forecasts of sales taxes and property
taxes, as well as, providing policy advice to the legislature on public
and private housing issues.

Alamo recalls entering Maxwell
without much practical work experience, but with the training he
received he was able to obtain a great internship in the Sacramento
policy world, which eventually led to his dream-job with the Legislative
Analyst's Office. His time at Maxwell provided him with the technical
skills that he later found he would need in applying public
administration and policy frameworks quantitatively to policy issues in
California.

A stand-out course for Alamo was Dr.
Parmer's course on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Dr. Parmer’s
insistence on clear and thoughtful writing prepared him for the high
caliber of work that would be asked of him after Maxwell. Alamo went on
to say, “The director at my previous job, a job largely dependent on
clear and thoughtful writing, used to say, "Strong writing isn't simply
the sign of a strong writer, it actually the sign of a strong thinker."
Dr. Parmer's emphasis on this point helped prepare me to communicate
effectively in life after Maxwell.”

During his time at
Maxwell, Alamo was fortunate enough to receive a graduate assistant
position, which he held in The Center for Policy Research. He believes
if not for the graduate assistant position, he would still be paying off
his student loans and would not have been able to join the Peace Corps -
a once-in-a-lifetime experience to him. “The post-Maxwell financial
flexibility that my graduate position gave me now means the world to me,
as I write this from 10,000 feet in the Peruvian Andes, Alamo stated.”
His advice to current Maxwell students is to make great friends and
invest in relationships with professors and staff, as both will last
forever.